A blog about an English-French bilingual family written by Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert, author of two books on Bilingual Parenting and mother of three more-or-less bilingual children. Hear how the family got started and how they cope with day-to-day life....

Friday, June 01, 2007

Mummy is crying…

Our last few days in KL were blurry, as the packers ‘hoovered’ up all our possessions. I made a last few trips to the Craft centre where we did batik to try to calm down. We were doing as many batik pictures as we could before we left. As I left Marc and Nina to walk around the artist complex I spotted an artist. Her name was Shima and she had a huge rectangular Malaysian picture of beach houses, turquoise sky and soft sand for sale. It seemed to represent the best of our times in Malaysia and I made an instant decision to buy it, even though it was expensive for my standards, over 2,000 ringgit (about 300 pounds or 500 dollars). It was the first time I had bought from a real artist and I was chuffed to have found her, although I wished I had met her earlier.

I cried all the time, the first time with my calligraphy teacher, Ikuko when she presented me with a handmade Japanese scroll. Then at home the kids stopped playing to watch as I wept when Odile hugged me goodbye. It was the same with Victoria, Mahin and Liz. I could hardly bear to say goodbye to our maid, Aimee, who had found a new job with a Dutch family in KL, but had been so much a part of our life for the last two and half years. I had managed to be smiley and positive with so many people I had met in our three years, but saying goodbye to these surrogate family members was the hardest thing ever.

On our last day Hilary and Benoit invited us to eat with them just before we left for the airport. Jacques was staying for the summer to finish off his job and would be joining us in six weeks. That made me feel emotional too. Finally Jacques dropped me and the children at KL airport for our flight to Paris and I had to stop dripping tears and look forward to a summer in France….for the first time in our own summer house.

About Me

Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert is British and married to a Frenchman. She has three more-or-less bilingual children, aged 14, 11 and 8. Suzanne has a Masters in Education and currently teaches English as a foreign language in France.
She also independently researches family bilingualism and multilingualism. She has published two books and regularly contributes to bilingual websites and journals.